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Something Extra: Subway Horror

MIAMI (CBS4) – Since the terrifying murder of Kitty Genovese in New York almost fifty years ago, we have seen too many stories of how people have stood by and done nothing to help victims of violent crime.

Few are as awful as this one.

Fifty-eight-year-old Ki Suk Han was reportedly trying to protect other subway riders in New York City last night from a man who was apparently mentally disturbed,

The man threw Han onto the tracks as a train approached.

A photographer says he caught horrifying images of Han on the tracks as he supposedly tried to use the flash from his camera to warn the conductor to stop the train.

The New York Post, in typical fashion, sensationalized the horror.

And while bystanders reportedly tried frantically to stop the train, most seemed to have distanced themselves from the conflict itself and nobody moved quickly enough to help save Han’s life.

The “bystander effect” is a social-psychological phenomenon that occurs when people don’t help others in an emergency. The greater number of bystanders, the worse the problem is, because of something called “diffusion of responsibility.”